Biography

Cheryl Heuton is executive producer of NUMB3RS, which she created with her husband and writing partner, Nick Falacci. Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci are accomplished screenwriters with several scripts under development at major studios, but NUMB3RS is their first television series. Cheryl studied literature at the University of…more

Trivia and Quotes

Trivia

It was announced on September 30, 2011, that Universal Cable Productions has sold a project to NBC from Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci that is based on a short story from Elmore Leonard's When the Women Come Out to Dance and will revolve around a Colombian mail-order bride who moves to Miami and struggles to move on from her past.

On January 7, 2011, the American Mathematical Society presented its prestigious JPBM Communications Award to Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci for NUMB3RS' positive portrayal of the power and fun of mathematics, which made the show's fans aware of the ubiquity of mathematics in their daily lives.

According to a National Science Foundation press release dated April 16, 2007, Numb3rs, as well as Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci, received a National Science Board group Public Service Award for 2007 on May 14, 2007, at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Cheryl Heuton loves to cook. Some of her favorite things to prepare are Mexican dishes, and roasting chickens and turkeys. She loves complex dishes and she loves a simple roasted ear of corn. She likes to marinate things and have Nick barbecue them. She also has a wide variety of pasta sauces. She enjoys spending all day in the kitchen for holiday meals and she makes a mean butternut squash soup.

A mathematician, a physicist and a biologist are sitting at a coffee shop and they're watching a house across the street. Two people walk into the house and then three people come out.

The biologist says, "Oh, my God, they've reproduced!" The physicist says, "No, the measurement must have been wrong." And the mathematician says, "I don't know about that, but if another person goes into that house, it'll be empty again."

Explanation: The mathematician, seeing two people go into a house and three coming out, reasons that the population inside the house is minus one. So one more going in makes it zero - the house is empty.

Before moving to Southern California, Cheryl worked at a small magazine in New York City and became good friends with a playwright named Alan Ball, a researcher named Mark Hudis, and a reporter named Lisa Marie Petersen.

Quotes

Cheryl Heuton: (Entertainment Weekly, November 6, 2009, regarding the series ending of Numb3rs) We will be doing a 16th episode that wraps up storylines and answers questions. It will be designed to stand as a finale, but it won't create story situations that would hamper us if the network should decide to order more episodes.

Cheryl Heuton: (regarding the state of the television industry one year after the WGA strike) There's a huge change in the business. This pilot season, more shows went to Canada than anyone can remember. Actors are working under their quotes, writers are working under their quotes. The strike didn't cause it, but it exacerbated the process that was under way. We are in a new financial reality, and you can't put the business model of a show together the same way you used to.

Cheryl Heuton: (discussing the evolution of procedurals on television) It is shifting a little bit. People want to see a little more character and a little more comedy. There was a time when people thought comedy couldn't belong [in a procedural] - other than Lennie Briscoe's little quips in the teaser of Law & Order.

Cheryl Heuton: (discussing Stephen Hawkings' guest appearance on the centesimal episode of Numb3rs) We offered him a role on that episode - he had to do it right away because he was going to be leaving in a few days - but we couldn't get a work permit for him in that amount of time. His people were telling us that he loves that we use math in the show and talk about physics a lot. When we couldn't get that work permit, they said he was crushed.

Cheryl Heuton: (discussing Numb3rs) The task each week is finding the balance between the math and the action. Then, because the lead guys are brothers, it pulls in the father. So we also have to find the balance between their home life and the work at both the college and the FBI.

Cheryl Heuton: Nick and I felt that a mathematician could be an exciting TV character because many mathematicians are natural detectives and inventive problem-solvers. Because of their creativity and rigorous training in logic, they often have a unique way of looking at the world. CBS was quick to understand that the amazing things being done with math today could be the basis of a new kind of crime show. We designed it around a family to give it a strong emotional basis, and to show the audience the human side of both the mathematician and his FBI agent brother. The math gave people something new to think about, even though it's already a constant and vital part of their lives. We hope the show brings home that reality, and encourages more people to be excited about math and science.

Cheryl Heuton: (on her husband and their successful partnership) We're a very balanced partnership in terms of ideas and who writes. He's better at production issues and I'm probably better at story planning and story analysis.

The Family Friendly Programming Forum, an umbrella group encompassing many major advertisers, named Numb3rs the best drama series at the eighth annual awards ceremony. Cheryl Heuton said when she developed the series, she expected it would draw an adult audience as well as a cult following, but the chemistry between Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz wasn't not expected as well as the show clicking with school children. She was quoted as saying:

Cheryl Heuton: That's been really surprising to us. We didn't plan it that way, and we didn't expect it. We're really gratified.

In a press release issued September 18, 2006, regarding the decision by TI and CBS to continue using the award-winning national math education program, "We All Use Math Every Day," for the third season of NUMB3RS:

Cheryl Heuton: It is rewarding to know that, alongside TI and NCTM, we are continuing to provide resources and tools to help educators inspire their students.

Cheryl Heuton: (on finding the right actor to portray Charlie Eppes) We had some monologues with a lot of math language, and it's very difficult to sound like you say these words every day. We began to think we had written an uncastable part until David [Krumholtz] came in one morning.

Cheryl Heuton: (on being honored with the Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science)Nick and I are honored to be recognized with this award and we continue to be appreciative of the science and math community who have embraced the show. We are proud to support CSSP in their efforts to increase national awareness about science.

Regarding the show and the partnership between Texas Instruments and NUMB3RS, and conducted in association with NCTM, Cheryl Heuton was quoted in a press release, "It is really gratifying to know that 'NUMB3RS' can serve a purpose beyond pure entertainment. We are glad that TI and NCTM see the educational value in our show. NUMB3RS producers and the cast are happy to spread the word that 'Math is cool!'"

In an April 2006 AP wire, Cheryl Heuton explained the premise and concept for romance on Numb3rs. "More than most shows, this show had to tell people what it was about a little longer than most." She went on to say, "It was a different kind of premise, but now I think, and certainly at the beginning of next season, we can finally say 'OK, people know what it's about.' They get how math solves crimes, so let's go on to see where the personal problems are and why."

Cheryl Heuton's first inspiration for Charlie, the math genius in Numb3rs, came from an encounter with "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" in 1994 while covering a TV convention in Las Vegas. In an article in The Seattle Times, Cheryl told Kay McFadden, "Bill got very passionate about there not being enough kids going into math and science to support the national infrastructure," recalls Heuton. Later, "I was reading Genius, about Richard Feynman, and thought, 'I could make a hero out of a character like this.'"

When a student at the screening of the pilot at Caltech asked whether the creators were concerned they would run out of ideas, Cheryl Heuton replied, "Not really. Do you worry you're going to run out of problems? The most fundamental answer is, math can apply to anything."

Here's to a long life with Numb3rs!

Cheryl and Nick are both top-notch people. They work hard on their series, and remain open to the fans of the show. They patiently address questions that are posed, and give in-depth answers when able. The fact that they love what they are doing is very evident in each episode of Numb3rs. The concept of math being used to solve crimes is a fresh angle, and the fact that they don't use excessive violence is refreshing. Each week Cheryl and Nick make the math accessible to all, even those with basic knowledge in the field. People with higher education will find the formulas correct, and others may discover the urge to research something they saw on the show.Very well done, from my persective!moreless

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